Tuesday, October 25, 2016

A group of maritime archeologists studying sea
levels in the Black Sea have uncovered over 40 shipwrecks this year as a
“complete bonus.”

The Black Sea Maritime Archeology Project has
been trawling the seabed to understand how quickly the water level rose
after the last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago. But their surveys ended up
uncovering dozens of previously unknown wrecks. Many of the discoveries
are in excellent condition, thanks to low oxygen levels below 150
meters, which slows decay.

“The wrecks are a complete bonus, but a
fascinating discovery, found during the course of our extensive
geophysical surveys,” said Jon Adams, a University of Southampton
maritime archaeologist and principal investigator of the project, in a statement.

The team took thousands of still photographs of
the shipwrecks, and then used photogrammetry, a technique that uses
software to calculate the positions of millions of points in space, to
build 3D models of the discoveries.

Some of the ships discovered are thousands of
years old, dating to the Byzantine empire, while others are from the
Ottoman period.

Hulls, masts, tillers, and rudders are all
clearly discernible. “Certainly no one has achieved models of this
completeness on shipwrecks at these depths,” said Adams.

Friday, December 26, 2014

A
Russian Black Sea city declared a state of emergency on Thursday after a
burst pipeline spewed oil into the landlocked water body, with stormy
weather hampering cleanup efforts. The pipeline near the town
of Tuapse burst late on Tuesday, according to ChernomorTransneft, a
subsidiary of Russia's main oil transport company Transneft.
"The wall of the pipeline broke due to... a landslide," the company said
in a statement, adding that the rupture caused 8.4 cubic metres to leak
out into the Tuapse river, which empties into the Black Sea. Environmentalists warned however that the volume of the spill could be nearly 100 times greater than claimed by Transneft.A
sign that reads 'Prohibited area! No entry!' hangs on a barbed wire
fence outside an area of Tuapse oil refinery in the Russian Black Sea
coastal town of Tuapse. (Reuters photo) The oil transport
company said the damaged section of the pipeline — about nine kilometres
(five miles) from the Black Sea coast — was under construction by a
subsidiary of oil giant Rosneft and was not yet in use by Transneft. Rosneft also operates a major oil refinery in Tuapse.
Russia's sea and river transport agency said a cleanup mission was
launched on Wednesday afternoon, though stormy weather precluded the use
of boats. By Thursday, the local authorities declared a state
of emergency in Tuapse and more than 300 workers were at the scene,
according to the Krasnodar regional government website. "There
is a state of emergency for Tuapse city," a statement on the Krasnodar
regional government website said. "Work is complicated by a storm, with
waves two to three metres (up to 10 feet) high," it said.Oil leaks are seen at the Tuapse river in the Russian Black Sea coastal town of Tuapse, December 24, 2014. World Wildlife Fund said on Thursday that the spill already polluted 15
kilometres of the Black Sea shore, and accused Rosneft and Transneft of
failing to act quickly and understating the real extent of the damage.
"According to WWF's information regarding the surface area and
characteristics of the spill, the volume of the spill could be 500 to
700 tonnes (nearly 800 cubic metres)," WWF said Thursday. The
organisation said the consequences could have been avoided if the energy
company alerted local authorities about the accident immediately
instead of delaying its response for many hours. Tuapse borders the resort city of Sochi, where Russia hosted the Winter Olympic Games in February.